Hot Topics

Please find below a list of Hot Topics related to Biofuels.

Food vs Fuel / Food Security

The production of biofuel from crops has sparked fierce debate over whether biofuels will cause food shortages, by using crops that would otherwise have been used for food production. However, there is in fact enough land globally to produce both food and fuel - find out more in our Fact Vs Fiction section. When crops such as oilseed rape and wheat are processed to make biofuels, they also produce feed for animals, so food and fuel is produced from the same crop.

In our Resources section, you can access a report called 'UK Crops for Food and Fuel', commissioned by NorthEast Biofuels, which addresses some of the misinformation which has been communicated around the issue, and aims to promote the benefits of biofuels.

Recent food shortages have resulted from poor harvests, rising demand from countries such as China and India, and lack of investment in global agriculture. Find out what the Gallagher Report had to say on this issue by clicking here.

Indirect Land Usage

Indirect land usage change has emerged as a contentious issue around biofuels. Some scientists are concerned that while biofuels grown on land previously used for other crops have a positive environmental footprint, because it results in other land being used to grow food crops which has not previously been cultivated. Using previously uncultivated land can result in greenhouse gas emissions.

This argument is further complicated by the fact that when crops are diverted into biofuels use in one country, other feedstock may need to be imported to replace them. This feedstock may in turn be grown on previously uncultivated land.

The issue of Indirect Land Usage Change was originally raised by Searchinger et al in a paper published in February 2008, and the issue of Indirect Land Usage Change was extensively discussed in the Gallagher Review. Some scientists have since raised questions about the original research *

*For instance: The News Rules Project Policy Brief. David Morris February 2008. Letter to Science by Michael Wang and Zia Haq, February 2008. Response to Science papers by Fargione et al, and Searchinger et al, Dr. Bruce Dale, Michigan State University, February 2008

Harvest 2008 demonstrated that most crops can be produced without the need for additional 'new' land. Furthermore, if the growing of food and other crops were subjected to the same sustainability criteria as biofuels crops, there would be no need for concerns about land usage change.

www.biofuelsnow.co.uk addresses this issue in the Fact Vs Fiction section.

Food Prices

Rising food prices during 2008 led to a lot of misinformation as to the cause of these rises, with the production of biofuels often becoming a scapegoat. However - rises in the cost of food have been largely due to poor weather, poor harvests, increased demand from emerging economies such as China, increased energy prices and other costs, and lack of investment in global agriculture.

This issue is examined in our Fact Vs Fiction section, and in our Resources section in The cost of food: Facts and figures, UK Crops for Food and Fuel, and the Gallagher Report.

Deforestation

As biofuel production has grown, there have been concerns that they are causing the destruction of rainforests, destroying habitats and depriving animals of their homes. The UK biofuels industry is committed to strict sustainability standards, as set out by the RTFO, which mean that biofuels produced from land reclaimed from rain forest are unacceptable. The first quarterly report of the Renewable Fuels Agency shows that 97% of biofuels from the UK are meeting the sustainability criteria.

There are a multitude of causes of deforestation including logging, infra-structure and clearing trees for food plantations. Biofuels are not the primary cause of deforestation.

See what the experts have to say on this topic, as well as our Fact Vs Fiction section, which dispels some of the myths.